Thomas Hardy seemed to live a life of undecisivness and uncertainty. His writing focus switched from fiction to poetry which seemed to overlap, and the agnostic vs. spiritism battle he also dealt with.
Even though Hardy writes about real situations, I think that he is comparing these to his own life. If someone such as Hardy puts so much thought and detail into his work his life or at least parts are going to end up on paper. In “The Convergence of the Twain” Hardy writes:
"In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she." (p.1076)
Hardy, I think, is writing about the comparison of the Titanic to the way of life he sees around him. The Titanic at the time was claimed to be unsinkable and more extravagant than anything ever built. The irony to this claim is that the ship sank on its first voyage. Looking past history and the events that took place, the comparison between the ship and the iceberg is what I think relates to Hardy’s life.
I think that when he wrote about the “deep from human vanity” he was writing with sarcasm. The ship was full of vanity. From the claims of it being unsinkable to the extravegent ball room on board. It was a time where he saw the change in society moving toward materialism and the cliché “Victorian” way of life. Industrialism was taking over the great countryside he once enjoyed and did not agree with the way the country was progressing.
Also, when Hardy writes of the ship and the iceberg I think he is comparing the two objects just as he struggles with his faith. He seems to doubt his faith by referring to other antagonist, but at the same time he uses spiritual words in his writing.
"Well: while was fashioning
This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything" (p.1076)
Through his writing we can see that he has not lost all since of spirituality. Even though he is not saying that God is responsible, he is aware, or believes that something intangible resides over us. Thomas Hardy’s life and writing have witnessed his struggle with certain ideals and beliefs, but he has never lost touch with the carefulness with which he writes.
3 comments:
Jason,
Good focus on Hardy's "Convergence of the Twain." You select some appropriate passages to quote and discuss, and make some interesting assertions about them. I am not sure about your claims about Hardy's faith, though--he was pretty famously agnostic.
I did not think about this poem in the same way that you did. I looked at it more like Hardy was looking at the faults of the people around them and that these faults are what causes failure. It seems to me that the people had excessive pride in this great ship, and it was this pride that was the cause of the ship to sink.
I saw the pride of the ship as its downfall as well. I do not think that he alludes to God anywhere in the poem, but yet some other "immanent will" that controls the destiny of the ship. In reading this poem, I understood that the fate of the ship had already been decided before the ship had even set sail. Interesting take on the poem.
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